Being a freelance developer is a lot like being a pro golfer

Right? Don't see the resemblence … ??

No? Ok. Let me explain …

A pro golfer travels the world constantly playing on different golf courses. They need to figure out how the course should be played, where the bunkers and water hazards are, figure out the layout of each course, get to know a new environment, and they have to do all that very quickly. And based on the course they are playing on, they often change up the set of clubs they are using. And they practice. A lot.

These things can be transferred to us freelance developers. We move from project to project where we need to step into a new environment (a different course) and get up and running very quickly (golfers only get a couple of days to get acquainted with each course). We freelancers need to change up our toolset (different set of clubs for each course) for each project, both our own development tools as well as all the communication and project management tools each team uses. That can be very challenging. Currently I am in multiple Microsoft account hell, as I need to communication with different teams on 'Teams'. Not fun at all, but part of putting in the work and aligning yourself with the client, their tools and communicatin preferences.

And then to the big question ... do I play golf at all? No, I don't. But maybe in the future I can find time to pull out the clubs from storage and have a round or two.